The Leif Garrett Mystery
by KatPartridge
Summary: It's Halloween! The Hardy Boys are going to the Bayport Monster Mash Halloween Costume Party, to hopefully have a regular, fun night. And that's what it is...until a case of mistaken identity turns odd! Rated T for slight language/dialouge


**A/N: Okay, so this is my first Hardy Boys fan fic. So please bear with me, and let me explain this. (and thank you for choosing to read this! You are awesome!)**

**So this is based on the TV show starring Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson...so immagine Frank and Joe looking like Parker and Shaun. (young, ofcourse) Nikos is my OC... I just wanted to bring in a tragic charater who's been cheated and trying to get better and be with family like he should be. **

**And yes, this is based in 2012. I hope I don't get a lot of crap for the modern setting like I did with my Dukes of Hazzard story. Anyway, I know Frank and Joe at times are OOC. But that is because the approach I took to this is: "What if they made the TV show today...what would they be like?" **

**So I apologize if this is noncanon/OOC. So if you don't like that stuff, just don't read. And I don't mind construstive critisism, but please don't be mean or rude. There is no excuse for that. **

**I own nothing! :)**

**Happy Halloween!**

* * *

"We have to hurry it up!" Joe screamed, standing on the bottom of the stairs, looking at the clock that was hanging on the wall. He was already in his costume for the 12th annual Bayport Monster Mash Halloween Costume Party. He was dressed up as Eddie Van Halen.

"I'm coming!" Frank screamed, as he made his way down the stairs. His costume made Joe crack up in hysterics.

"What's so funny?" Frank looked at his brother with a serious look.

"John Travolta in Grease? Seriously, Frank? John Travolta?!"

"Fonzie, you idiot. I'm Fonzie from Happy Days."

"That is the stupidest costume idea ever." Joe said, shaking his head.

"I don't think so. I could have been Tony Romo you know. Or Derek Jeter. Or even worse… John Goodman. Be thankful I went as Fonzie. EH!" Frank stuck his two thumbs up and grinned like an idiot.

"Oh please." Joe shook his head. "Where the heck is Nikos? Doesn't he know we are gonna be late?!"

Exactly a minute later, Joe's twin brother, Nikos came down the stairs in his costume and fixing a long blonde curly wig.

"What the hell are you? A spandex pants wearing teen idol or something?" Joe and Frank asked in unison, confused by their brother's quite obvious costume.

"I'm Leif Garrett. Duh. The shirt gives it away. See?" Nikos unzipped his tight fitting leather jacket to reveal a black tee shirt that read "FEEL THE NEED FOR SOME WEED" in bold red letters. He then grabbed a red scarf and wrapped it around his neck.

"Why are you Leif Garrett? Why Leif Garrett?" Frank asked, as they headed out the door.

"I can relate to him on this interpersonal level. And besides, I didn't feel like being Burt Reynolds. This face isn't moustache material."

Frank laughed at the mental picture in his head of Nikos with a moustache. He pictured Burt Reynolds with long thin black hair, piercing blue eyes, a skinny body and face and that signature moustache. It made him crack up.

"We are not taking the van." Nikos said as Frank opened up the driver's side door to the gold-ish colored van.

"And why can't we, Mr. Wannabe Leif Garrett?"

"Because, Fonzie… People know The Hardy brothers have this pedo van. What they don't know is that Nikos Hardy has a beautiful 1986 Trans Am."

"It's not a pedo van!" Frank protested. Joe was laughing hysterically.

"He has a point."

"Joe, it's a Halloween party. Nothing is going to arise that will put us in danger."

"Something always comes up."

"And the Trans Am goes to 0 to 70 in 3 seconds." Nikos grinned.

"The Trans Am does this…The Trans Am does that. What doesn't the Trans Am do?" Frank mimicked, throwing his arms up.

"Dude… you're acting real funny. You've been acting real funny since Nikos came here." Joe said.

Frank shook his head, knowing Joe was right. The truth be told, Frank wasn't that thrilled with the arrival of Nikos, Joe's long lost twin brother who was supposedly institutionalized at birth due to some odd mental defect with later was ruled to be childhood schizophrenia.

Frank felt that with Nikos in the picture, his and Joe's relationship would be threatened. And it seemed like that was exactly what was happening. Joe and Nikos had this instant bond. At first Frank thought that it was just that odd bond twins shore, but now it was getting increasingly hard not to feel like the 3rd wheel.

Frank also resented Nikos a little. Frank hated the fact that after 16 years in some mental institution, and 1 year living on the street (and finally on Nikos and Joe's 18th birthday, was when Nikos rejoined the family); the family treated him like he was more special than he and Joe.

If he or Joe had a drug addiction and was always in trouble being a street urchin, their parents wouldn't send money and buy them their dream car. So why did Nikos get a Trans Am and money to live off, when he clearly escaped the mental ward and fell into a heroin addiction? Sure, Nikos was allowed home on the fact that he went thru rehab and remained sober (which actually has gone quite well), but the whole situation really irked him.

"Uh…We're gonna be late." Joe said, snapping Frank out of his thoughts.

"We're not taking the Trans Am."

"Fine! Fine!" Nikos said, climbing into the van with his brothers.

Frank started the engine, and roared out of their driveway.

An eerie silence filled the van. Joe and Nikos debated on turning on the radio, but they didn't want to irritate Frank some more. He already seemed like he was an inch away from snapping. He wasn't being very calm and collected lately.

Nikos admired his costume in the mirror. If one was a Leif Garrett fan, the costume was unmistakable, right down to the high shine spandex pants. Not that Nikos would say anything, but if he could be anyone in the world he would want to be Leif.

"I have this odd feeling." Joe randomly stated, as they were about to pull into the Bayport Community Center's parking lot.

"It was probably the hotdogs." Frank laughed, referring to the night's quick and easy dinner.

Joe didn't find it funny. He knew something was up. He was never wrong about these things.

"Let's just go in. I want to see the competition for the costume contest." Frank said.

"Leif freakin' Garrett." Nikos grinned.

"Please." Frank scoffed and got out of the van. The others followed, and headed into the community center.

Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness" was blaring, as a whole bunch of people in costume tried to come up with some dance. Most of the costumes were your typical zombie, werewolf, vampire, and Frankenstein ones. Joe shook his head at the lack of creativity.

"Look, we came here to have a good time, so just don't get yourselves into anything stupid. And Joe, please don't get up on stage and sing." Frank warned, before he walked over to a girl dressed up in a zombie prom queen costume.

Joe looked at Nikos. "Let him be attacked from behind. We got ourselves something to look out for."

"Dude, that was creepy." Nikos' eyes widened at his twin's comment.

"I just have this feeling, man."

"Why is it so hard to think that we can have a night of fun?"

"Because we're Hardys. We can't have a simple night of fun."

Nikos sighed, and grabbed a can of Mountain Dew from a cooler.

"So what do we do? This isn't like the dances the stupid crazy house held."

"We uh…we…Well I like to get up on stage and sing. But there is no stage. So I think we dance."

"I don't dance." Nikos said.

"No. But Leif Garrett does." Joe stated, and like magic Leif Garrett's "I was made for Dancin" came blaring thru the community center.

Nikos tried to hide his smile. Joe laughed. "Come on, Leif! Dance! DANCE YA FOOL!"

"If this goes on YouTube you are dead. Got it?"

Joe snickered and watched as Nikos danced along to the poppy beat. Joe took out his iPhone and recorded the whole thing.

When the song transitioned into Debbie Gibson's "Only in my Dreams", Joe put away his phone and walked up to his twin.

"Look at the guy in the orderly costume. He's been staring at us all night."

Nikos looked over. He quickly looked away when he saw the tall, muscular man in the green orderly costume.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to get out of here. He's…he's not good news."

"Alright. You stay here while I get Frank."

Nikos grumbled. He didn't want to be left alone when the creepy orderly was lurking and staring at him.

* * *

Joe ran up to Frank in a panicked hurry.

Frank rolled his eyes, as he was slow dancing with the zombie prom queen girl.

"This better be important." Frank gritted.

Joe pointed over to where the orderly was.

"What are you pointing at?"

"The man in the orderly costume. Nikos said he was bad news."

"I don't see anyone in an orderly costume. Now go away."

Joe looked over. The orderly man was gone. He looked over to where he left Nikos. Nikos was gone.

"Frank! The orderly must have taken Nikos!"

"Oh my goodness! Maybe he had to use the bathroom or something?!"

"Damnit, Frank! We need to find them. NOW."

"Fine." Frank turned to the zombie prom queen. "Sorry." She shrugged her shoulders and went to dance with some man dressed up as Slash.

"Alright, did Nikos say anything else about this orderly guy other than he was bad news?"

"No. He just said that he was bad news. And he didn't look at him for long."

"Maybe the orderly was some drug dealer that Nikos stole from in the midst of his addiction?"

"Maybe. But let's not waste time thinking of who Nikos stole from when he used."

* * *

In the community center's kitchen, the man dressed as an orderly tied Nikos up to a metal chair, and injected a long needle into his back.

"LET ME GO, DAMNIT!"

"Now, now, Mr. Garrett. You knew our agreement."

Nikos looked confused. "What agreement?"

"You know…the agreement we came up with at the contract signing. I would be your manager, if you agreed to give me 30% of your album sales."

"Album sales? What are you talking about?"

"Please, Leif. Give me a break."

"You must be confused."

"Leif…I'm not the one confused here."

"I'm not Leif Garrett."

"Yes you are. You are unmistakably Leif Garrett."

"I AM NOT LEIF GARRETT!" Nikos screamed.

"Yes you are."

"I don't know who you are, but I know I'm not Leif Garrett. And Leif Garrett doesn't look like this today…if you even knew the 1st thing about Leif Garrett. Again, I'm not Leif Garrett… I'm only pretending to be him for Halloween. This hair? It's a wig."

The orderly tried to remove the wig, but for some reason, it wouldn't come off. In fact, it seemed to morph into Nikos' actual hair.

"Haha, very funny, Leif."

"I'm not Leif."

"You know what? I'm sick and tired of your little games. What are you trying to prove?"

"You know what? The more you call me Leif; I'm calling you Burt Reynolds. You look like Burt Reynolds."

"I'm you manager, Luke Darwish. Damnit!" He slapped Nikos.

"FUCK YOU!" He screamed. His voice echoed and Nikos kinda laughed. "Hm, kinda sounds like Leif's. Hahahahaha." He thought to himself.

Nikos then decided to do something real stupid, and started to sing a few lines to "I Was made for Dancin".

"Yeah, you are Leif."

"NO I AM NOT!" But for some reason, Nikos had trouble believing that statement.

"Leif, it's the drugs talking, isn't it?"

"Maybe…maybe."

"I'm always tellin' ya! This stuff doesn't look good for your reputation!"

"I'm plenty sure it's not going to hurt anything."

Nikos no longer felt like Nikos. It was strange. He was questioning who this "Nikos" was, and what was going on. He felt like a teenage Leif Garrett. In a way Nikos knew this was odd, and something was up, but he seriously no longer felt like Nikos.

Suddenly all these thoughts and memories that weren't his came flooding into his mind.

"I am…I am Leif Garrett. I am a superstar." Nikos said, staring right into Luke Darwish's eyes.

Luke grinned deviously.

"Yes. Yes you are. You are my cash cow."

"I was made for dancing. All night long."

"Now, let's not worry about dancing."

"Why not? The song is huge."

"Because I need to know where my money is, Leif."

"My mother took it. She wanted to buy a house."

"Now, you know it's not nice to lie."

"I'm telling the truth."

"Now, Leif, I can be your friend or I can make this a living hell for you."

"I DON'T HAVE THE DAMMNED MONEY!"

Luke splashed water on Nikos' (or should we say Leif's) face.

"I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY!"

Luke slapped him around some more, until Nikos spoke up.

But just as he was about to do as such, Frank and Joe busted in.

"What are you two meddling kids doing here?!" Luke asked, rubbing his moustache.

"Saving our brother." Frank simply said.

"Who are you two? I only have a sister."

"Nikos, stop messing around." Frank shook his head.

"Nikos? My name is Leif."

Joe cursed under his breath. He always hated it when people turn into someone else. It was odd and he hated working with that kind of paranormal switched soul stuff.

"If you two had any sense, you would get out of here." Luke said, rapping his fingers on the steel sink.

"No. If you had any sense you would get out of here and let our brother go!" Joe grunted, picking up a spatula. Luke laughed.

Joe charged at the older man, while creating a distraction, so Frank can free Nikos. Frank was successful with the freeing of Nikos, but however it was going to be a few hours before Nikos was Nikos and not Leif. Joe managed to escape quickly with Frank and Nikos, but as they ran out to the van, Luke was hot on their tail.

Frank started up the van and sped out onto the main road.

"Why are we going so fast? Do I have a show in like 10 minutes?" Nikos asked, looking at each of them.

"You are not Leif Garrett so just go to sleep." Frank said.

"Why are you telling me who I am? I'm pretty sure I'm Leif Garrett. I'm pretty damn sure."

Joe and Frank sighed, knowing how it was to deal with cases where someone becomes someone else. Thankfully it wasn't permanent, so in 6 to 8 hours, Nikos will be Nikos.

* * *

*Six hours later. Back home*

Nikos sat up and laughed. Joe and Frank looked at him.

"So I just had the strangest dream, ya know?" Nikos laughed some more.

"What was it about?" Frank asked, playing clueless.

"I remember saying that I wish I could be Leif Garrett… and well apparently some psycho Burt Reynolds look alike in scrubs shot me up with some stuff and whala! I was Leif Garrett. And not the Axl Rose or Don Dokken look alike Leif either. Like successful Leif. I swear man, it was like so realistic."

Joe and Frank looked at each other.

"And this is why drugs are bad." Frank smiled.

"I've been 6 months clean." Nikos retorted, but smiled back.

"And that's a very god accomplishment. But why would you want to be Leif Garrett?" Joe asked, curious.

"Because, like I said earlier. I can relate to him."

And with that, the three brothers smiled and laughed.


End file.
